Anyone who has been closely following every single one of Neal Huntington’s small, insignificant moves lately (probably just me) will know that he has fallen in love with hard-throwing relievers who are pretty much incapable of throwing strikes. Examples include the Rule 5 draft choice [Donnie Veal], the rumors involving Derrick Turnbow, and acquisitions last year such as Evan Meek, Tyler Yates, and Denny Bautista. [Dejan wrote] about how “power” carries a ton of weight in Latin American scouting.

Well, the list of non-tenders came out midnight Friday, and one name that surely will jump off the paper to Neal is Daniel Cabrera, formerly of the Baltimore Orioles.

Cabrera appears to be a perfect fit in the Pirates’ rotation at first glance. He’s never finished with an ERA under 4.52 or a WHIP under 1.432. Most importantly, he walks guys. Lots of them. He averages 110 walks per 162 game season (that’s 34 starts, so more than 3.2 walks per start). His career record is 48-59.

But if you can get over adding ANOTHER pitcher prone to walks (that is a massive “if”), Cabrera is perfect for a pitching-hungry team like the Bucs to gamble on.He boasts some ridiculously nasty stuff. He throws absolute smoke, having little trouble reaching 95MPH and throwing sliders around 89MPH. That is something we don’t see on the current PBC staff. [Huntington has confidence in Joe Kerrigan] to tutor these guys to throw strikes. He could be an ace if he gets his act together. He’ll come cheap.

The worst case scenario? He will continue to walk people and we will continue to lose games this year. That’s probably going to happen even if we don’t sign him. The Pirates ought to roll the dice on Cabrera.